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Guess what, latchkey kids? People don't like you, or your mom either!

Just when we think we've turned the corner into the year 2010, a Kansas State University psychology study comes along to let us know that we may, in fact, be stuck in the middle of last century.

According to a new study which would send Betty Friedan into a frenzy, there's still a stigma attached to moms who work full time outside the home and their "latchkey" kids. The findings go so far as to suggest that latchkey kids may be automatically "disliked" for no reason other than their mothers' work status.

Conducted by grad student Jennifer Livengood (best last name ever for a psych student), the study indicates that people not only devalue women who work full time outside the home, but also perceive the children of these mothers to be "troubled" and deem the mother-child relationships "problematic," despite having no actual evidence of this.

Using a group of single and almost entirely childless undergrad students, Livengood and her researchers showed a video of a mother and her 4-year-old son playing a game and completing a puzzle together. Some of the participants were told that the woman was a stay-at-home mother, some believed she was a full-time working mom, and some thought she was what the academics termed a "middle mother," who went back to work part-time 18 months after giving birth. That was the only difference in the exercise.

After filling out questionnaires, the participants proved awfully judge-y: They didn't differentiate between the "middle mother" and the stay-at-home mom, but they devalued the full-time working mother and extended their rancor to the child and the mommy-latchkey-kid relationship.

According to Livengood, "The most interesting, and potentially dangerous finding, is the view that if a child has a working mother, people don't like that child as much. People like mothers who fulfill traditional stereotypes, like staying at home."

We like to blame our moms for plenty of things -- but judging a latchkey kid as being "troubled" solely because his mom works full-time outside the home is just depressing, not to mention painfully antiquated. Besides, what do a bunch of undergrads know about work/life balance? From what we remember, we dropped any class that took place before 8:30 a.m., or on a Friday, and loved when partaking in a study like this paid enough to fuel our binge drinking for a night.

But, what do you think: Is there validity to assuming a child who had a working mother might be troubled? Or would a mom who spent her days making Slice-and-Bake cookies and watching "One Life to Live" disturb you more?


Kate Emswiler is a freelance writer based mostly in New York. She sometimes treats her two cats like they're her children (stopping short of dressing them in wigs and creepy costumes). She also has a bit of a thing for Sawyer on "Lost."